Tag: God

At this juncture we have reached a crossroads. Up until now, this blog series has focused on advising and directing parents.

In keeping with the advice given to the parents of pubescent children, we are going to shift the focus of our audience from the parents to the students who are completing their secondary level education at home.

However, even though the future belongs to the student, I do not want to exclude parents from the conversation. Therefore, I will be making suggestions that may at times be directed at parents or students or both.

I strongly urge parents to make this blog series a required part of your student’s secondary learning, especially as they approach and transition to the post-secondary level.

Now, let’s begin by discussing:

The Three Most Important Decisions

Life provides us with many opportunities for making decisions. In fact, it is estimated that we make as many as 35,000 decisions every day, whether we are conscious of them or not!

No doubt, there are some decisions that are much more important than others, especially those affecting your long term best interests. In that respect, I believe that everybody will make three critical decisions in life.

The first and most critical decision involves God’s place in your life. Whether you decide for or against God, or to accept or reject what Jesus has provided you, is of critical importance as it defines eternity.

A decision about eternity not only establishes the outcome of your post-life journey, but affects your future, which is included within the eternal.

Consider that how you perceive God becomes the very foundation upon which you build your worldview and that this is the place from which you will draw all your presumptions in decision making.

Furthermore, the degree to which you commit to serve and obey the Lord will very much influence the direction you choose to walk in life. Indeed, the amount of freedom you will have will correlate with the extent to which you walk in faith. You can study this in the Gospel of John, Chapter 8.

The second most important decision involves love and marriage! This decision, properly made and maintained, will last a lifetime.

Although not as crucial as the decision to follow or not to follow God’s directives regarding eternity, a lifetime is a long time, so this decision is of critical importance to your journey here on planet earth, and it should not be taken lightly.

Getting attached with the wrong person will lead to either a long miserable life or a broken one. Neither is desirable.

Although this decision is the second most important one you will make in your life, the third most important decision will likely be made before the second most important decision.

The third biggest decision that you will have to make is regarding your career or what you will do in life. Unlike the eternal consequences of the “what place will God have in your life” decision, or the lifelong “who will be your partner” decision, this one will affect your day to day life for forty years or so.

Unlike the first two decisions, this one is more of a process than an event. Although there may be some trial and error in the beginning, most people eventually find their place in this world.

All these decisions are individual decisions. Nobody can make them for you.

Parents cannot make these decisions for their children. They most certainly should be advising, but parents will not be the ones having to live directly with the outcomes of any of these decisions.

However, you need to clearly understand that all decisions made by any person will affect others, especially those closest to you.

Generally speaking, nobody is blessed with the ability to make the right decision every time. No doubt, there will be changes of mind as you go through all the options for faith, family and freedom.

If your desire is to get things right the first time, start with the most important decision first, namely, God’s place in your life. If that decision is correct, you have a better chance of making the right decision respecting marriage.

Regarding marriage, there will be a few, maybe many potential candidates, but only one needs to win! There is no need to get in a hurry, but at the same time, if you are waiting for the perfect person to show up, you may be waiting for a long time!

I am personally not convinced that one has to actively seek a lifelong partner. My experience is, I must admit, somewhat limited, but I believe that this ideal, not perfect, individual sort of “falls” into one’s life as one walks through it. Maybe trusting God to provide this person is the best approach. What do you think?

Once a potential candidate comes into your life, remember that even though marriage is a personal and intimate relationship between you and your partner, it includes everyone involved in your lives. Some of your “seasonal acquaintances” will drop out, but most will want to continue to be part of your life.

Involving those who love you the most, starting with your parents and siblings, cannot be overemphasized. As a rule of thumb, if your potential candidate fits right in with the rest of the family, you at least have someone who will not be separating you from your loved ones.

As mentioned, career decisions are usually made before the marriage decision. On this front, it is okay to experiment. Part time work or volunteering is a good way to get the experience and to discover what you like or don’t like doing.

There are two things at play in the beginning of your career search. First there is finding a job, getting experience and cash to move forward in life. Few start and end in the same place.

The other issue involves what you will be doing for the rest of your life. Few start here, but most everyone ends here.

This is where the home educated have a real advantage over the schooled in that they are usually more comfortable with who they are, more aware of their strengths and limitations, more mature and therefore more able to find a good fit, earlier.

Three big decisions. The first is by inspiration. The second is by enlightenment. The third is by discovery. All are life changing and therefore critical.

Parents should be involved. Family and friends should be involved. But you will have to ultimately make them.

Oh! By the way, if all these questions are about your future, your foundations, direction and purpose in life, I highly recommend you consult the One who truly knows something about that!

Make the most critical decision to serve the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind and strength. Seek His Kingdom and His righteousness. If you keep the other decisions in prayer, you will find that they will eventually be added unto you.

Any structure can only be as good as its foundation, as this is the starting point from which one is going. A flawed foundation can only lead to a flawed building, whether physical, intellectual, familial, spiritual or what have you.

Jesus called the good foundation a rock upon which the “building” will stand against what comes at it. A bad foundation He likened to sand which can withstand nothing, in the end. One does not have to be an engineer to understand this.

Home education is no different. In fact, this is precisely what Jesus was alluding to when he spoke of foundations. He was not nearly as interested in constructing buildings as He was in building lives. Child rearing is about building lives.

Since parents only get one opportunity to raise their children, it is important that the job be well done, the first time, or, more accurately, the only time available to us.

Bringing children into the world is one of the greatest blessings, although a mother may take exception to that statement once delivery time comes upon her! This is called labour for good reason, but that ends up being only the beginning of a task that becomes the biggest and most important job parents will ever face in life.

I am not sure if you have thought of this, but raising children is not for cowards! Raising good children takes work. Raising Godly children takes dedication, commitment and a trusting faith in God, along with believing in His promised provisions for our lives and the tasks He has given us to do, especially regarding children.

This task is hardly a part time job! To achieve what God has asked us to do with the children He has given us, takes a full time commitment, best delivered in the environment expressly created for this task, which is as a family, in the family home.

And… once again, there is serious need for a foundation upon which this family will be established and built, and without which there can be no clear direction from which to go.

I know that I have shared this story before, but it is worth repeating. It took place a long time ago, at the moment I first held my new baby, who today is a mother of four children, herself! I can still remember the feeling of suddenly being thrust into a position of leadership with no direction. My heart told me that I was responsible for leading her somewhere and it frightened me that I did not know where.

Fortunately, I had been doing some serious studying of the Bible as a non-believer. I knew enough to know that I would never know where I was going until I was sure of where I was.

Similarly, without a clear understanding of where you stand, you have little hope of knowing where you are going. This is directed at all parents, but specifically to those embarking on their home education journey.

I assume that since you are reading this blog that you are a person in search of truth. Otherwise there would be no need for you to be here as those who have already “found it” are already “perfected.” But, just in case you have not, let me strongly suggest that you build your family structure on something fully immutable, namely God.

The Bible gives us a very strong clue right from the start… “in the beginning… God” and it ends with “the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you, amen.” In between the beginning and the end, the central verse of the Bible, Psalm 118:8, says that “it is better to trust the Lord than to put confidence in man.”

Looking at the beginning, the end and the middle of the Bible provides us with our starting point, our goal and the means to get there.

Understand that you cannot get a more solid foundation than upon Him who created all things! Creating and building a family on a foundation based on the Creator sounds like a winner to me!

Ultimately, we all die and it is assumed that given a choice, we would rather choose heaven than hell. Hell is easy to get to. That’s why parenting is so difficult. To make matters worse, even though we may desire heaven for us and our children, none of us can make it on our own.

That is why the end of the Bible is instructive. Want to bring your family with you to heaven? Then “the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you… amen!” He is our perfection, the way, the truth and the life. He is the only way we make the “grade,” so to speak.

Putting our trust in God the Creator, rather than putting confidence in man, the created, sounds to me like a wise way by which to build a family. Agreed?

Now, with God as a solid foundation, with heaven through Jesus Christ as the ultimate destination, your home education program is clearly destined for success.

Knowing this is the easy part. The most challenging part of your home education journey will be keeping your eyes on Jesus, the author and finisher of the faith. You will need to trust in God rather than putting confidence in man, who will have no lack of volunteers to help you forget your foundation and miss the mark of your eternal goal.

Finally, trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge Him and He will establish your plans. Sounds like a winning plan to me!

Without getting into the silly notion that a student cannot succeed in life without a college degree, let’s have a look at the fears and concerns regarding post-secondary education.

There are actually two main concerns at this point in the education of your children. The first is how you can direct them towards their futures and the second is how to prepare them for that future. I will attempt to address both these concerns in the next two chapters of this series.

Here again, the solutions are very simple. Firstly, not wanting to insult you or to cause undue stress, I must be perfectly honest regarding the first concern regarding your child’s future.

Your child’s future is, quite frankly, none of your business! Hard words, I understand, but please, bear with me as I give you a few self-evident facts.

You have virtually no idea of what tomorrow will bring, much less where you will be in a month, a year or a few years. We all assume things will continue on as they always have, but life clearly teaches us that this is false and that we are not in control.

If you cannot predict with certainty what your future will be, how can you presume to have any idea as to where your son or daughter will go or what they will do with their lives?

Our task is not to direct our children to their futures, but to prepare them for it, without knowing what it will be! We need to trust that our efforts in training and teaching them will pay off and it usually does. Indeed, if we have allowed our children to be comfortable in their own skins, we also need to encourage them to determine their own pathways. Not easy, but simple.

Our job as parents is to make sure that they have a good foundation upon which to build their lives, starting with the spiritual foundation of faith in God. If we have led our children to know God, they are in the care of the only one who can possibly know the future.

Not only that, but He is the one who truly knows, understands and cares for that child. Our very best efforts at parenting cannot even come close to what God knows and does. Seriously, is there a better manner to direct our children than to demonstrate a faith in God’s ability to care for them in every way, including what place they will occupy in the future?

Understanding this is of critical importance for both the students and the parents. Students need to have faith in the fact that, if they trust Him, God will guide them in their lives and if they don’t, God will do so anyway, as He remains faithful.

Parents need to understand that their job is to lead their children to God who will lead them in their lives and into their future.

Preparing children for that unknown future is no easy task and requires a lot of faith. It may seem like God has asked parents to do the impossible! But directing students to learn in keeping with their strengths and abilities works well as these attributes are what will ultimately determine where they end up. Besides, we have all heard that what is impossible for man is not so for God.

One of the most damaging lies fed to students by the school industry is that they can be anything they want to be. This is only true when taken in the context of what the child is good at.

A student that does not like or cannot understand math will not likely become an accountant or an engineer, even if he thinks he can. Similarly, one who does not like reading or writing is not likely to become a journalist. So, if they can read to survive, and be able to write a legible email to their mother when away, good enough!

If they want to work on cars, let them. Love playing music? Great! When they reach the point where they have to make a decision regarding their futures, they will either have what they need or will obtain what they need to carry on. That is how we raised them, so that is what they will do.

When students are transitioning to the post-secondary level, parents should only be in an advisory role. If parents need to be actively involved in their child’s post-secondary admission processes, the child is not ready, not mature enough, to survive with faith intact at the post-secondary level.

Now, I am not going to suggest that the transitioning to the post-secondary level will be without some fears and concerns. Once again, this is especially so for the oldest of the family. However, once parents realize that their influence, although profound, is not the only contribution towards the student’s success, and once they realize that God indeed has a part to play, their faith will melt these fears and concerns away.

Think about this. Your parents likely didn’t direct you to do what you are presently doing with your life. Likely, you did not do such a great job at predicting it either, but here you are! Truth is, if they had directed you to something, that’s probably what you didn’t do.

On a practical note, there are a few things that can be done in preparation for the post-secondary level and the most important is to properly document what has been studied, experienced and accomplished in the home education program at the secondary level.

Alberta residents who have registered through Education Unlimited for their home education are provided with excellent tools to properly and effectively record the accomplishments of their children. Post-secondary institutions from many jurisdictions have been very pleased with what we have to offer.

Please allow me a bit of bragging on this note. I have been called Canada’s foremost authority on the post-secondary admission of unaccredited home educated students. It would truly be worth your while to check out these web sites for these insights. Go to www.educationunlimited.ca and leogaumont.com. I hope you will be able to see why I so confidently state that students do not need high school accreditation, courses or diplomas to successfully move on to the post-secondary level.

Home educators have done all they can to give their children the best preparation possible for their post-secondary years. Every student will eventually arrive at this level, whatever that is. All you can do for them once they arrive there is to stand with them, to encourage and mentor them. Oh, don’t forget to pray! That is much more effective than harbouring fears and concerns.

Well, to start, it is Bible-based! It is focused on what God expects of parents. It should come as no surprise that it takes a man and a woman to produce children. It is also not hard to imagine that the God who created the ability to procreate would expect the procreators to complete the job by raising the children while teaching them to know and love Him.

This, incidentally, is a full time job. There is actually no time for school. There is also no mention in the Bible of shoving the job into someone else’s hands. So it remains the parents’ job. Not their right or preeminence in education, but their God ordained responsibility.

Therefore Bible-based education is simply not following the world, but obeying God and raising, training and teaching the children, yourself, at home. It is obeying God’s directives as outlined in the Bible. It is God centred, family-based and it happens at home. If the parents are truly following God, home is the best environment for the raising of Godly children.

Bible-based education is often called traditional home education, implying, maybe, that once upon a time, most parents taught their own children or hired others to help them with that responsibility. While it may be “old-fashioned” it is still the best alternative.

Bible-based education is natural learning because we’re working with what God has created, in keeping with the children’s abilities, gifts, talents, readiness and so on, as well as their shortcomings within the family environment.

It is a matter of developing what God has created in God’s timing and in God’s way. It is not making something of the children. The children are already made, created as is! No need to program them. Nope, just provide opportunities to develop what is there.

Bible-based education is understanding that only God knows the future and that the children’s place as adults will be determined and directed by God, not parents, although it is important to understand that the more we put into those children, the better their options become.

The biggest issue with parenting is that parents often think they have to prepare children for a future they know nothing about. We need to acknowledge that the children’s futures are in the hands of the only one who knows the future and that is God.

This is very important to understand. Parents have the task of preparing the children so God can direct them in their futures. It still requires responsibility, but without control. We ultimately do not have control over the future, nor our children’s place in it.

There you have it! No fears or concerns because God has it all in control! Well, maybe reduced fears and concerns since we cannot fully understand everything. However, it is safe to say that a biblical home education should be a relaxed learning atmosphere. Doesn’t that sound like the way you want it?

There should be no stress and there most certainly should never be burnouts. God did not create us to burn out. If we’re burning out, we’re likely doing something wrong. Relax, seek God, do your best and trust in Him. He will not disappoint those who have faith.

I believe the family is God’s focus. When I read the Bible I find that the first profession is still the most wonderful profession in the whole wide universe. It’s called motherhood. That was around before anything else.

I believe in a traditional nuclear family, and as a consequence, as a logical extension of our faith in God and His creative powers, we believe in home education. As a matter of fact, I am unapologetic about that.

I believe that children are created by God, and therefore have an innate capacity for learning. How do you stop children from learning? Somebody answered once by saying, “Send them to school!”

Actually, you can’t stop children, anybody for that matter, from learning. They are going to learn in accordance with their natural aptitudes, gifts, talents, interests, individual readiness and opportunity, along with a purpose and a place.

So we who believe that God created children, believe He created them complete. As a matter of fact, if you read the Genesis account of creation, the first five days, He talks about the creation. He looks at it and He says that it was good. But when He created man, He looked upon him and He said that it was very good. So our kids are very good, at least from God’s creative perspective.

We believe that a parent’s responsibility is to develop what has been created. It is not your job to create something of your children. If you believe that, then you’ve bought the lie.

God said children are already created. Our job is to nurture, to protect, and to prepare them for the future. We protect them until they’re old enough for us to start to prepare them. Is there a dividing line between protection and preparing? Yeah, there is. God’s already built that in too.

Let’s take a look at what we would believe to be the Christian home education foundation. Faith, we said, is the complete trust or confidence in someone or something.

The central verse in the Bible is Psalm 118:8. Now what do you think the central verse of the Bible would say? It says, “It is better to trust in the Lord than to put confidence in man.” That’s the central verse of Scripture.

Put your trust in the Lord, don’t put your confidence in man. We were just saying that faith was confidence in someone or something. Let’s put our confidence, our faith, our trust in God and not in man. That would be the foundation upon which you would want to build your Christian home education.

Oh, one more thing. Think or someone will do the thinking for you. If you question nothing, you will get nowhere.

Part of the series Who says…
Written by Léo Gaumont, published on 2014-10-13.

If God is and we determine to serve Him, what kind of commitment would He expect from us? Absolute commitment, that’s what!

Building on a foundation that God is, that He created the universe and that He ultimately is responsible for our children’s being, should provide ample substance upon which to build our faith. This lengthy series will identify the secular thinking that has eroded that faith.

Once established as the foundational part of our world view, belief in God must be accompanied by an understanding of absolute, what the dictionary defines as ultimate reality. We must come to grips with the fact that we are not the ones who set the rules about the role that God intends to play in our lives, and since He is the be all and end all, the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end, He is absolute and so are His expectations of us. He demonstrated His absolute love for us in that while we were yet sinners, He gave His all for us. Why should He expect anything less of us?

God is absolute. His word is authoritative and absolute. He establishes the rules and they are absolute. He is the embodiment of truth so it is absolute. He is absolutely committed to us and therefore fully expects unwavering commitment from us. His life for ours. There is no negotiation or exception. Our own “personal interpretation” of reality not withstanding. We will never, ever be able to “… yes, but…” the Creator of the universe.

The ten commandments start with “I am the Lord thy God…” and then follows with directives on how we are to acknowledge that initial statement before proceeding with directives for good conduct. The fact that the first five commandments deal directly with how the initial statement should be demonstrated in our lives leaves no room for a partial commitment. You may ask how this has anything to do with home education to which I can confidently answer, everything. Once we have been enlightened with respect to who has the authority and responsibility for the training and teaching of children, there is no negotiation or exception to His expectations in this matter. Once we know the truth, we are without excuse when we willingly, knowingly transgress it in favor of “alternate approaches” to education. If God said “you teach them”, He meant, “you teach them” from start to finish. He does not need help from government, He needs obedience from parents, who will demonstrate their faith in Him through their commitment to teach their children themselves. He does not change His mind or His directives once the children get to high school or when the going gets tough! Even if there are those who, for one reason or another, simply cannot fulfill this directive, God does not waver in His expectations, so it is up to the community of believers to be ready to assist those in need with their commitment.

Who says there are absolutes? God’s stating that “I am the Lord thy God” makes Him and all that He has established as true and therefore, absolute. Those who would say otherwise are probably not as interested in your eternal, as much as in their temporal, well being.

Part of the series Who says…
Written by Léo Gaumont, published on 2014-10-06.

Who says there is a God? He does!

Building on a foundation that God is, that He created the universe and that He ultimately is responsible for our children’s being, should provide ample substance upon which to build our faith. This lengthy series will identify the secular thinking that has eroded that faith.

The most important element of any world view is the part that deals with the existence of God. Some may say “who says there is a God?” while other may say “who says there is no God?”, but neither question can be answered using human measures. Those that believe in God also believe in heaven and hell while those who do not, believe that death just ends with nothing. A wise man once said that believers were not near as brave as non believers since if believers are right they get heaven but if not, they get nothing. Unbelievers, on the other hand, get nothing if they are right and hell if they are wrong. The wise man must also have been a brave man!

Greg Koukl of Stand To Reason (www.str.org) has recently defended the existence of God by exposing three problems with the atheistic or unbeliever’s perspective.

The first is the fact that nothing cannot produce something. The world coming into existence from nothing is a difficult position to defend! As Koukl is fond of saying, “even a big bang requires a big banger”!

The second problem is the question of evil. Even though most people seem to have a natural ability to determine what is acceptable or unacceptable, it is difficult to project this as a naturalistic cause. Moral law cannot be adequately explained outside of a moral law giver.

The third “bump” that Koukl describes is the fact that we “are” and conscious of it. If we were but the product of a natural cause, our consciousness should not exist. Stuff has no consciousness so where do we get it? And where did we get the idea that we are broken, not just physically sick but morally corrupt? Only through an external reference point can any of this make any sense.

So, who says that there is a God? “I Am” says He does! And He has revealed himself to us in three ways. Through his word, through His son Jesus Christ and He has left his fingerprint all over His creation. Just look at your beautiful child!

Part of the series Commanded, Commended or Condemned?
Written by Léo Gaumont, published on 2013-10-14.

How do we know if something is acceptable or not. If measured from a biblical perspective, one can use a simple little formula to arrive at the right conclusion.

Opinions expressed in this blog are those of the blogger which, although based on personal experience and knowledge of the scriptures, can be in error. No one has a corner on the truth but we should all sincerely be in search of it.

How often do we ask ourselves the question, “is this right or is this wrong”? The answer to this question depends on the foundation from which you make your decisions. The way I see it, there are three main categories of foundational premises from which lives are directed. For those who have not considered that God has created them and the world they live in, there is no absolute right or wrong, therefore you can do anything. Truth is, if you have not considered God in any matter then you are not likely to give too much consideration to what is right or wrong aside from what you can get away with respecting government. The second group believes in God and may even have accepted their salvation through Christ but are not that interested in coming to the knowledge of the truth. They do not spend much time in getting to know who God is and what His expectations of us are and largely rely on what others have told them is right or wrong. This group is most likely to develop a strong sense of self-righteousness if they are passionate about doing right without having a good foundation or reason from which this correctness is to be based. The third category is made up of those who desire to have have a biblical perspective in their lives and are active in searching the truth, knowing that they will be judged according to our understanding of what is right or wrong. We must be careful here not to fall into the “what you don’t know won’t hurt you” mentality. Ignorance has never been an excuse for breaking the law! For those who really want to know how God feels about something, there is a simple little “formula” that may be used to discern the will of the Lord concerning any particular matter. If God commands something, or if He commends its doing, we should be convicted of its correctness. Conversely if God has not commanded nor commends or condones it, we can come to the conclusion that to commit it is a crime before Him. We should apply this simple formula whenever the world is trying to advance something as normal or acceptable, knowing that “God Cs All”. To be sure, one must be familiar with the narratives of the Bible to be able to apply this formula. The reason so many Christians have been corrupted into accepting something as right or wrong is because of the general lack of knowledge regarding the teachings of the Bible. As we become more familiar with what is within the pages of this collection of books we will be better able to use this little formula to discern right from wrong and to commit ourselves to act accordingly.